Game Design is the practice of creating and balancing systems and the mechanics which the player uses to affect those systems. This is not to be used for programming questions about the "design" of features, engines, etc.
5
votes
2answers
306 views
Resolving Diplomatic actions in a RISK-style board game
I'm working on a board game called Farlanthia: Lords of War. And I need some help with resolving diplomacy during play.
My original idea was to have Diplomacy be a form of "attack" like in RISK. This ...
19
votes
2answers
801 views
Who kept a blog for a year with a new game idea every day, and where is it?
There's this indie game developer who tried to come up with a new original idea for a game every day for a year - and he put all his thoughts on his website. +200 ideas so far, if I remember ...
15
votes
2answers
663 views
Multiplayer Implementation, Can I implement it later if I chose to?
I plan to use XNA to build a game project. I'm not entirely sure at the moment if I want to add multiplayer functionality or not, bearing I have a lot of other problems to solve that I'm still new at. ...
4
votes
2answers
338 views
Checkpoints in a racing game?
The game would be a race from A to B through several checkpoints. I think there are two approaches for the concept of time.
The game starts with some time and player has to make it to the finish ...
16
votes
14answers
1k views
Advice for a first year CS major
I'm coming to the end of my first year of CS which has been primarily a Java based course. I'd like to get my feet wet with some game development but I'm not sure where to start.
Some people have ...
7
votes
3answers
338 views
Discussion about Serious Games : Their lacks and forces
I would like to start a little discussion about serious video games. Do you think serious games DO have their place in today's world ? What kind of serious games do you think the most interesting in ...
16
votes
12answers
848 views
Balance in online PvP games
I don't know if there's an accepted solution to this wicked problem. I'm thinking about the design of an online PvP game. A key aspect of the game, something that is just a given, and not my choice, ...
4
votes
1answer
176 views
How important is music to mobile phone (smart PDA) games?
Specifically iPhone/iTouch, Droids, and the new Windows Phone 7? I don't know how to quantify this, or if any research has been done. I am wondering how important the music is to the gaming and what % ...
18
votes
3answers
514 views
How do you choose the right price of items in your games?
I have a game in which the player earns money for wining races and, then, he can spend that money to unlock new levels or to improve his vehicle. Now, I am choosing the money you earn and the prices ...
2
votes
5answers
713 views
How to make a simple escape the room game?
I want to make a very simple "escape the room" game. I was hoping for something that looks something like this. You would see images of some room and you click around to move or to add things to ...
8
votes
6answers
709 views
What type of document for game design? [closed]
What type of support/format do you use to store and diffuse your game design documentation?
Wiki? Doc files? Files in Repository? Shared folder? Google Doc?
Please provide pros and cons for each one.
...
5
votes
2answers
217 views
How to “repeat” a sprite in the gameworld in a random fashion?
I have a platform flash game which includes a level with just two backgrounds which are flipped side by side so that a looping background effect is created. In this I have to include Obstacles. ...
4
votes
1answer
383 views
Taking Physics into account for AI Planning
What I've seen in most Game Engines and game engine design is that the Physics Engine is the be all end all system.
Basically, AI for example may want to travel to some position, but it simply ...
3
votes
1answer
146 views
When should design give way to marketing and vice versa?
When should a Designer draw the line in design decisions when marketing does step in?
Where should the bounds be set?
(For most part I know this is might mostly be situational. Gut feel like thing. ...
7
votes
3answers
257 views
What do you do when you are at an impasse in the design phase?
I own a small web dev shop, and in our down time, I plan on having my guys work on a game (I will be paying them anyway, right?). A few buddies and I started talking about this game, and have been ...
5
votes
1answer
1k views
Where can I see example sell-sheets for a game?
So my long term one-man indie project is turning into a two-man indie project, and I feel I need to take a step back and at least have a "sell-sheet" as a basis for the game design.
Does anyone have ...
10
votes
2answers
3k views
Making a character move along a curved slope in a World with gravity
I have seen this game
Fancy Pants 2 . And the thing I noticed apart from the physics and beautiful animations is that the character is moving along slopes , even curved slopes. I have little ...
12
votes
2answers
11k views
OpenGL ES 2.0: Setting up 2D Projection
This article describes in general, how to draw sharp OpenGL 2D graphics, using fixed function pipeline.
http://basic4gl.wikispaces.com/2D+Drawing+in+OpenGL
Because OpenGL ES 2.0 has some ES 1.x ...
5
votes
2answers
936 views
How do I build games with scripted actors?
The idea
I have an idea for a game. A few games, actually, that can built on top of the same general design.
There is a game world that the player and the other actors exist in. The player can get ...
2
votes
2answers
617 views
How to draw a charts by flash cs5
Hey all , I want to make something more interesting in my game some thing like a charts Analysis for a flash game. When THE PLAYER FINISH THE GAME . The score appears in charts . I want to integrate ...
10
votes
5answers
550 views
Custom Content Package for Files
I am about to purchase quite a few model packs from a website for prototyping my game. In the contract it states that I must protect them as to prevent the public from gaining access to them.
I ...
11
votes
4answers
2k views
How can I design an effective game object interaction scheme with a component-based architecture?
This is a design question... I'm sure this could be generalized more, but I'm having a hard time with it. I am wondering about design for game object interactions - here is my example (2D ...
6
votes
3answers
518 views
Most Efficient way to read a Settings Configuration File
I have been working on a game for quite a while, and I am using Ogre3D for the rendering engine. It is getting to the point I need to move adjustable settings to a configuration file such as video ...
7
votes
3answers
267 views
How does one measure and reward social aspects in virtual worlds?
Well this sounds like a pretty vague question but please bear with me.
I know of how Gaiaonline gave gold to people who participated in forum posts.
I'm curious if in theory these could be applied ...
7
votes
1answer
816 views
what should the size of a flash game in Facebook be
I'm developing a flash game and i want to put it in Facebook
,My question is the Proper maximum size for it.
500 KB
1 MB ??
2
votes
1answer
186 views
Can someone provide a simple algorithm for calculating an outcome based on User characteristics?
In these online games, say you are a person who has characteristics like:
level
strength
experience
defense
...
And now you walk into a room of 'others' that you want to e.g. recruit, how would ...
3
votes
3answers
208 views
Collaborations with colleges? How do you make them work?
I am a graphic artist and not a modeler or a programmer. For the last few months I have been developing the concept for a game, but could not find a proper team of collaborators to make a demo. Then, ...
6
votes
4answers
721 views
Simplest most effective way to rank and measure player skill in a multi-player environment?
I know of the Truskill algorithm, it's quite complex but effective.
My question is there other algorithms/methods to determine a players skill for accurate measuring for multi-player competitive ...
7
votes
2answers
747 views
Level Implementation
I recently started to create a sidescroller game, for learning purposes. While creating several levels for it, i stumbled upon the question, how to implement these levels into my game. I made (and i ...
9
votes
8answers
448 views
How do you decide when your feature list is long enough?
I know a bit about this question but I find that there are quite a lot of diverse opinions on the subject?
I know from a players perspective that more options is almost always good. But on the other ...
4
votes
3answers
323 views
Good examples of 'transferable game logic' across genres?
Do any of you have any good examples from two or more games that share some of the same game logic, but are of entirely different genres? Could very well be one of your own games. Take Warcraft 3 and ...
6
votes
11answers
1k views
Is story more important or the gameplay more important?
Read this Slate article. In particular, the following struck me:
When he looks at video games from a critical distance, Bissell is concerned mainly with their lack of narrative meaning. Games ask ...
9
votes
4answers
781 views
Balancing game difficulty against player progression
It seems that the current climate of games seems to cater to an obvious progression of player power, whether that means getting a bigger, more explosive gun in Halo, leveling up in an RPG, or ...
7
votes
4answers
507 views
Programmers/Designers: working with artists
Expanding on this question, what information do I need to communicate my artistic goals for a game to a professional artist?
Assuming I'm an indie programmer. and I've found or hired an artist to for ...
4
votes
4answers
264 views
Who has ownership of publicly developed projects?
After seeing the comments on selling an idea to developer for a game, the general concencus is that without a game, or atleast a demo, it’s not going to happen. So…someone (yes, Noctrine, I am looking ...
2
votes
2answers
268 views
what are the essential things to be looked upon in game design
I've made a couple of games now.
Starting from basic hobbyist projects like snake , I advanced into platform based games, board games, turn based games. While doing the latter of these projects I had ...
6
votes
5answers
465 views
The Thin Red Line. What to present to get interest without showing too much?
I am Dalilean and I am a gamer. There I have said it. Damn, feels like a weight is lifted from my shoulders… They say the first step is to admit the problem. Now the second step is doing something ...
23
votes
11answers
10k views
How do you come up with ideas for new games?
What is the best way in your opinion to find new ideas for games? I want to invent something really new (like Gish, World of Goo, Crayon Physics etc), but I'm having problems coming up with new, ...
5
votes
4answers
718 views
Methods of player retention and conversion in MMO games?
What are other retention and conversion (free to play to paying to spender) strategies in MMOs?
I know some like promotions, social viral, content generation, intentional imbalance, perks and ...
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vote
4answers
291 views
Mahjong solitaire - navigating between open tiles
I am looking for an algorithm to help me navigate between 'open' tiles in a Mahjong solitaire game. The game is to be played on a limited device with only left-right-up-down buttons and I want to ...
3
votes
3answers
364 views
How to do an infinite torus topology battlefield for over-the-shoulder perspective
I'm currently prototyping a simple two-player adversarial game, where the players are able to move around and shoot at each other with cannons. I would like the playing area to feel essentially ...
8
votes
6answers
467 views
Agency versus story
What are good ways to reconcile a desire to allow the user to have freedom of choice and have their choices affect the world, with the desire to be able to have a story without the player 'ruining' ...
5
votes
2answers
616 views
what options do I have for rendering “large” terrains?
I am trying to design a game with some interesting features but one question I have is regarding terrain. I want a terrain that will make for a very large game world, and I want to be able to have ...
16
votes
9answers
823 views
How do/should MMOs handle disconnection during PvP?
In an MMO (not even necessarily an MMORPG) what are some techniques for dealing with players disconnecting in the middle of PvP?
In particular - how do you avoid adversely affecting people who get ...
22
votes
6answers
852 views
Have any video game designs used non-uniform random numbers in interesting ways?
A variety of video games use uniformly distributed numbers to decide the outcome of an event, such as a "50% chance to hit" almost always means to check if a random floating point number from 0-1 is ...
0
votes
0answers
234 views
History of console-style RPGs [closed]
Is there a book or Website concerning the history of console-style RPGs like Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy etc., similar to the series on The History of Computer Role-Playing Games by Matt Barton or his ...
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votes
4answers
645 views
How to Create a Game? [closed]
I'm a newbie. I like to play games, but I'd also like to program them too. I know it's difficult to create a game, but please share the basic info I need to get started creating my first game. What do ...
5
votes
3answers
237 views
Other than the ESA are there other sources for demographic data?
I'm pretty interested in seeing demographic data as I find them good targeting tools. But other than the ESA reports (free) and NPD numbers (paid) does anyone know any other sources for such data?
10
votes
1answer
1k views
Unit Testing a C#/XNA Game Project
I have been dabling in game development since I started programming, but never very seriously. I work as a business app developer, but I'm working on some games in my spare time.
In the business ...
19
votes
4answers
1k views
How to determine the amount of experience needed for leveling up
Related questions under this topic might include:
How should I base how much experience points it takes to get to the next level?
What factors are involved in this?
How do I keep the player not ...
